Got a Sega Genesis and struggling to pick a game to play? Well, spoonshiro’s top 30 Sega Genesis games list from 2016 should help. Veterans won’t be surprised by the featured games but relative newbies will be spoilt for choice with an array of genres at hand.
The list includes Sonic 1 and 3, Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, and Mortal Kombat. Here’s the entry for Sonic 1:
In the early 90s, Nintendo was still ruling the video game market with a legion of strong third party developers and a memorable mascot character in the form of Mario. Sega AM8 (later known as Sonic Team) raced to think of a way to combat the unstoppable plumber, eventually coming up with a winning gimmick in the form of a hedgehog with an irreverent attitude that would roll into a ball and blaze across the landscape at high speeds. Thus Sonic was born, and with him the Sega Genesis had a massive surge in popularity – enough to surpass the NES in sales and lead the Genesis into a rivalry with the SNES that continues to spur fan debate even to this day. While it didn’t quite have as much variety as the Mario games, it did sport some creative and surreal stage design, stylish and colorful graphics, smooth animations and impressive music, as well as a more puzzle-based approach to some stages and even multiple routes through each level. There was even a hidden ending in store for those few who managed to collect all six chaos emeralds before the end of the game, which was no small feat considering the difficulty of some of those bonus levels.